1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to vehicular recording devices. In particular, this invention relates to a vehicular recording device for the computerized recordation of mileage and expenses.
2. Prior Art
Devices for the recording of mileage in vehicles have been in existence for many years, particularly in the well known odometer field. In addition, devices which record time, distance and a charge for time and/or distance are quite common, specifically in vehicles such as taxicabs. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,188,647, 3,809,312, 4,643,787 and 3,742,514.
In addition, devices have been manufactured which display vehicle performance characteristics, such as vehicle speed, lapsed trip distance, engine rpm, fuel consumption, rate of fuel consumption and the like as a function of time, specifically for use with trucks. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,188,618, and 4,644,368.
Further, there have been designed devices to record mileage and expenses of trips. Businessmen have, by necessity, kept trip logs to record business miles, personal miles, charitable miles and expenses relating to each of these types of activities. For Internal Revenue Service purposes, breakdowns of mileage in these various categories must be contemporaneously kept and must provide an accurate list of all types of expenses incurred. As a result, there has been a need for a device which will record this type of information. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,167, 4,067,061, 4,072,850, 4,344,136 and 4,593,263.
Of particular interest in this area are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,547,781 and 4,755,832 which disclose devices for installation in a motor vehicle for recording distances traveled on business or personal trips. These patents disclose a device for measuring the distance traveled by a motor vehicle, a means for indicating that distance traveled, a keyboard consisting of exactly two separate keys, one to enter a character indicative of business and the other to indicate a character indicative of personal use, a decimal keypad, a keypad for entering the information, a clock for entering the time and a paper printer or paper supply means for printing out the information. This paper printer and paper supply method is replaced in the '832 patent with a readable, removable information storage system in the form of a non-volatile memory pack.
Each of these devices provides some useful elements for measuring characteristics of a vehicular trip. However, none provide the capability of storing and displaying through a programmable personal computer all of the following information in a readily accessible manner: current day's mileage for business, personal, charitable or other purposes; current weeks, months or year's mileage for business, personal, charitable and other purposes; current date, current time, an expense record showing the fuel expense, travel expense, repair and maintenance expense on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis as well as time designations. All of this information can be contained within computer memory storage within the instant invention in a random access memory component until such data is transferred to to a personal computer using custom software. This new and innovative device eliminates many of the mechanical flaws of previously designed products, lowers the cost of the product, eliminates the necessity of a magnetic storage device or a printer, is easy to operate, easy to maintain and produces a document containing all of the information necessary for Internal Revenue Service reporting, and for the personal records of the individual.
Therefore it is an object of this invention to provide a device for the storage and reproduction of data related to the operation of a vehicle.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide a device for the recording of vehicular information which is easy to use and inexpensive to produce.
It is a still further object of this invention to produce a device for the storage and reproduction of data relating to vehicular use which can easily and simply transfer that data to a personal computer for printout or storage.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide a device for the recordation, storage and reading of information relating to the operation of a moving vehicle which is easy to operate because of its menu driven capability.
These and other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a consideration of the following detailed description, drawings and claims. The description, along with the accompanying drawings, provides a selected example of construction of the device to illustrate the invention.